Spotlight on Precision Medicine and Diagnostics
Interview with Marianne Fillion:
Head of Precision Medicine at Purdie Pascoe
An introduction to Marianne
Marianne, tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m a scientist who fell into market research by chance, and it turned into my career. It allowed me to travel extensively in my early career, which was really exciting. Over the last 23 years, I’ve worked for a few agencies, and in the past decade, have returned to my “lab” roots, specializing in diagnostics and precision medicine. It’s fantastic because I can continue to “speak lab” without having to run the tests myself.
In your spare time, when you aren’t delivering the highest quality healthcare insights, what do you enjoy doing?
I have two boys who keep me fairly busy with basketball and football practices and games. I try to squeeze in a hot yoga class whenever possible, or some paddleboarding and hiking in the summer. I also have a passion for gardening and love to grow flowers to make a range of bouquets.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be, and why?
I would love to have the power to travel back in time, so I could see what the past looked like. How people dressed, the sounds, the smells—since I love to read history books, it would be amazing to experience it all for real.
Marianne’s Perspective - Deep Dive
Can you tell us more about the work Purdie Pascoe delivers in Precision Medicine and Diagnostics?
We are one of the only market research agencies with a team dedicated to Precision Medicine & Diagnostics, which requires a high level of scientific expertise and an understanding of the dynamics of this evolving market. The importance of diagnostics is increasingly prominent and paramount to patients' lives and health, with technology becoming more extraordinary every day. Our work focuses on ensuring that diagnostics are available to as many patients as possible and used at the right time to provide the right answers for patients and their physicians.
You have over 20 years’ experience in the space, in your opinion how has the industry evolved?
The biggest change for me has been the travel. Since we rarely need to travel for in-person interviews anymore, we have shifted our travel time to attending medical and scientific conferences. This allows us to stay up to date on the newest technologies and trends, continuously improving our scientific knowledge and making us better partners to our clients.
Can you briefly describe why primary market research for development and implementation is so important?
As the diagnostic market becomes more complex and competitive, it is crucial for companies to ensure their new products bring value to customers, translating into better patient outcomes. With advancing technology and a crowded market, it is not always easy for clinicians and lab stakeholders to understand the differences between products.
From a pharma perspective, while developing new targeted therapies, they must also focus on the diagnostics needed to identify patients. This needs to be done concurrently with therapy development, rather than reactively after product launch, to avoid missing patients due to challenging testing rates and unreliable diagnostic journeys.
What are the most significant technological advancements in Precision Medicine and Diagnostics?
The new and ever-growing applications of CGP, Whole Exome, Whole Genome technologies are remarkable. From therapy selection to liquid biopsies and cancer monitoring, these technologies continue to expand and become vital to the treatment of cancer patients and other diseases. The next five years will likely see the arrival of cancer detection tests that may become direct-to-consumer products, drastically changing the diagnostic landscape and the overall healthcare ecosystem. This shift could hopefully allow for much earlier cancer detection and lead to a significant decrease in cancer death rates.
You have strong expertise in oncology market research and strategy. In your opinion, how is the competitive landscape in oncology changing? What are the key factors driving this change?
I think the question is not what is changing in the oncology landscape, but rather what isn't! Patients (and potential future patients) are becoming increasingly involved in the oncology landscape. Access to information is growing, and patients' ability to understand it is improving as well. They are informed through support groups, online research, and direct-to-consumer advertising, making them more likely to approach their physicians with questions and requests for testing and treatment. Recently, I heard during interviews that breast cancer patients were tested with a cancer monitoring test because they had requested it (one doctor had even heard about it for the first time through their patient).
Physicians also have to manage an increasing number of therapy options being approved for patients, which is great, but these therapies are targeted to fewer patients as they are tailored to specific genetic and genomic profiles. With the addition of new diagnostic tests, it becomes very challenging for clinicians to stay up to date and navigate a complex ecosystem that is becoming more specialized by the minute, all while having less time to train and treat patients.
What most excites you about the work you do?
What I like most is that every project is an opportunity to learn something new, stay up to date on the science, and continue to grow. Midway through my career, I had the chance to go back to school “just for fun” and completed some postgraduate training in healthcare system evaluation and analytics. And it was genuinely fun. I love to learn, and I love science, my role at Purdie Pascoe allows me to do both while providing my clients and team members with the opportunity to leverage that knowledge.
What makes Purdie Pascoe’s Precision Medicine and Diagnostics delivery unique as a business?
Our company combines extensive market research experience and expertise, often thanks to the support of my colleagues, with specialization in diagnostics and precision medicine. This unique combination is not found elsewhere, and our clients greatly benefit from it.